Friday, January 04, 2008

Mike Huckabee


THE GOOD:
Governor Huckabee has some really appealing qualities. He is funny. Really funny. After looking at Bush and Cheney for this long, a little bit of humor seems in order. Mike Huckabee is from the first generation in his family that did not have dirt floors.

He sure looks like a uniter rather than a divider. Really. But so did George Bush II when he ran for president the first time. We need to take a look at his history back when he was Governor of Arkansas.

He made a major lifestyle change and lost over 100 lbs. Even though he is a Southerner, he no longer eats fried foods or sugar. He now gets a little exercise. This certainly indicates that he is a strong willed person.

He plays the bass guitar. This is great and a good bit more contemporary than playing the saxophone.

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THE BAD: He is a Republican. Twice now in my adult lifetime the so-called fiscally conservative Republicans have almost bankrupted the country. And keep in mind that in the South this affiliation with the Republican party may well have other serious implications like hidden racism; ethnocentrism and bias against people who look different than white males, etc.

He strongly opposes universal health care. This alone almost overrules all of the positives in my book.

He wants to eliminate the IRS and institute a national sales tax. Not a VAT like in Europe. Since this is inherently a very regressive tax, he will pre-refund a certain amount to poor people. Most people hate the IRS so this sounds good. But historically the federal government having the ability to tax rich people in order to fund social concepts was genuine reform that helped the common man. Thinking that this will fly is completely unrealistic in my view. It makes me think that perhaps he is more charming and charismatic than he is intelligent.

His major support comes from evangelical voters and women. He was a Baptist Minister. Well gosh. I can forgive lots of things in one’s past if one is sorry and repentful. But I haven’t seen any indication yet that he has opened up his eyes to how narrow this thought pattern and belief system is.
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We have had a really dumb, stupid goof-ball as president for a lot of years now. Do we really want Gomer Huckabee next?
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Huckabee revels in the class war. He’s Two-Buck Huck, and darn proud of it. He likes nothing better than playing the Hick from Hope. He and his wife lived in a trailer for a while, he points out. His son killed a dog one summer, “a mangy dog” at that, as Huckabee explained to the befuddled national press corps. He said he used to eat squirrels, cooking them up in his popcorn popper.
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The preceeding is a quote from the NY Times http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/intro/?em&ex=1199595600&en=15c2838ba1928613&ei=5087%0A

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